


Zero has a bad day.

by Kosei



Series: No Longer Metallic [1]
Category: Rockman X | Mega Man X
Genre: AU, Accidental Confession, Alternate Universe - High School, Bad Decisions, Bad Parenting, Happy Ending, M/M, One Shot, RIP
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-03
Updated: 2019-05-03
Packaged: 2020-02-16 19:34:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18697843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kosei/pseuds/Kosei
Summary: Zero wakes up to his bratty cousin and asshole grampa yelling and things don't get much better from there.





	Zero has a bad day.

Zero was having a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.  
It started with listening to Bass, the brattiest 12-year old in the world yell to Wily and telling him to shut up. Not the best way to wake up, and Zero had to leap out of bed to tell him and the old man to shut up, which turned into a screaming match of them all yelling and the old man saying how much he regretting ever bringing them into his shitty little trailer. Zero regretted being born at all.  
Next, he realized he slept weird. How did he know that? Well, his fucking ear hurt like a bitch, his neck ached, and his back stung every time he leaned forward. None of his clothes were clean, and to his dismay, once he winced to pick up a dirty one from the floor, he had the choice between one with a mysterious red stain (blood or ketchup? The world may never know.) or one with a hole on the butt.  
Of course, he knew had to sew, had to when you live with Bass who swung a punch to anyone who looked at him funny and Zero who had a talent for getting into trouble with the wrong people. Of course, there were plenty of patches in their clothes and new holes were formed in there every day. but there wasn’t any time. He spent enough time yelling at the old man and trying to get the rats nest out of his hair. He pulled, he yanked, he tugged, but that brush kept getting stuck, eventually he said fuck it and cut the giant knot out. Not like he’d miss it anyway, he had enough hair to compensate. It just meant that he only had enough to throw on his clothes and maybe grab a mountain dew for his breakfast. For his lunch, maybe he would have enough time to cut the mold off of some bred ad slather some mustard on the sorry looking pieces.

So the mysterious stain it was.  
His prediction was right, his golden loose ponytail flew behind him as he ran to school. While his can of mountain dew sloshing around his hand and baggie with his mustard sandwich banging against his leg. The bad day wasn’t over just yet, he got to school late and got chewed out by Mr.Signas, he was now going to have to clap the chalkboard erasers during lunch. He didn’t understand why his school even used chalkboards still to begin with, or how that was a good punishment. It was stupid. Now he was going to have chalk dust all over him, and couldn’t procrastinate on doing laundry, which meant Wily yelling at him for wasting electricity and water…

It was punishment enough knowing X was disappointed in him for being late. He saw it as soon as he walked in. He had been on his case for a while about “taking school more seriously” and this would only fan the flames and add to his case. Axl was already elbowing X and whispering about something. Bet it was about him. Damn Axl...  
On top of it all, Signas had confiscated the Mountain dew.  
Great, now to top it all off he was going to be sleepy the rest of the day.

And sleepy he was. He was falling asleep left in right in all his classes. From math to classic lit, to chemistry…  
He couldn’t even look forward to a good meal once lunch arrived. He had only 20 minutes once he was done clapping the erasers together, and his once black uniform was speckled with the white dust. At least the mysterious stain was less noticeable now, he thought.  
Sighing, he wished he had his real parents. Wily’s “useless drunk of a daughter” who had gotten into a car crash when he was just 2 years old. Drunk or not, he would rather be beaten and the stench of alcohol cling to him all day long if that meant a decent lunch every once in a while. He could cook, yes but that didn’t mean anything when he only cared to go to the grocery store once every month and it was usually eaten up by Bass by the time they took a step into the house. 

But that also meant he wouldn’t have met X. His best friend since he was 5…  
Recently though, he’s been feeling more than just… friends. He wondered if Vile’s teasings of him being gay were right. What he was feeling wasn’t just friendly. They were more than that. But it wasn’t like anything would come out of it, he thought. It was better to stay by his side if something had happened… He didn’t know if he could live his life without X as his friend as depressing as it was.  
Besides, he deserved more than someone like Zero.

He managed to reach the rooftop to where X and Axl liked to eat on sunny days during the last 15 minutes of lunch.  
“Hey, Zero! Didn’t think you would come here before lunch would end!” Axl waved Zero noticed how he was holding a bento from a convenience store and was jealous. It was ridiculous, being jealous of something only worth 500 zenny but his part-time job didn’t nearly make enough as he liked. Not that he could complain too much he guessed…  
X waved and his heart went doki doki.  
“Yeah. Today sucks.”  
He sat next to them and tried to choke down his mustard sandwich and ignore the rumbling in his stomach.  
“Yeah, some days are like that. Yesterday someone stole my shoes and threw them into a tree.”  
“You get them back?” X asked, concern laced in his voice.  
“Yeah, I did! Good thing I did, or else Red would’ve probably beat my ass.”  
“That’s abuse!”  
“I didn’t mean literally X.” he snickered and grinned cheekily.  
“O-oh… W-well of he does you’ll tell me right?”  
“Of course X,” Axl responded with clear sarcasm. Zero wondered how X would react if he knew in what conditions he was living in. A dingy trailer and a verbally abusive grandfather…  
His mind drifted off and before he knew it he was staring at X, his pale soft skin and his brown hair that laid in soft curls. He patted the top of his head, yep, soft…  
“Hm? Are you okay Z?” he looked at him weirdly but didn’t brush his arm away.  
“...I’m fine.”  
Axl snickered, “Gay.”  
“Axl, I’m already having a bad day. I won’t hesitate.”  
“I-It was a joke!”

The break was nice but the day had just got worse, next they had PE class and had no choice to listen to X and his ramblings about how important was school and getting an education and how he ought to start going to cram school and take his final exams seriously and so should Axl- (who let out an “eh?! Why me?!”)  
Most days Zero didn’t pay any mind to his ramblings, he thought those were what made him X. Today though Zero had half of a mind to tell him how precious Dr. Light would put him through college no matter what. He knew how much that would hurt him, so he bit his tongue.  
That day they split into teams to play volleyball, volleyball wasn’t that bad but the team Zero was one was against… Vile’s.  
Fucking Vile.  
As soon as the gym teacher left the room, he started up his act, the act of being the biggest dick this side of the moon. Zero fucking loathed Vile, his snarky attitude, his shaggy black hair, what an ass.

“Come and get me girly!” Vile spat in Zero’s direction  
“Real original Vile.” he rolled his eyes.  
“What?! Too pussy?! Your fucking boyfriend getting to you?!”  
X frowned and looked at Zero, “He isn’t worth it, don’t do anything you’ll be-”  
“If you want to live this gym alive Vile, you will drop it. Now.” Of course, he couldn’t leave it alone. Insulting him was one thing, insulting X was another. He knew Vile was trying to provoke him, but fuck it worked.  
They stared at each other for a long moment, sizing the other up. Zero had a talent for glaring at people, a direct hit from his sapphire eyes could weaken the hearts of many men.  
Except for Vile, it seemed, as he just glared back.  
“Hmph. Just as I thought. You just don’t look like a faggot, you act like one too-”  
That did it, Zero lunged at him, hitting, and striking his face, the volleyball net collapsed on them, and soon the fight became a tangle of stray limbs while screaming. X came over to untangle Zero from the mass. So did one of Vile’s lackey's, a boy with black feathery hair and a long pointed nose that had the nickname “penguin.”  
Of course, the teacher had decided to finally come back in while this was just going on. The shrill whistle was blown and his yell, “PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE! NOW!” echoed throughout the gymnasium.  
Zero scoffed and started walking out, so did Vile, his black hair and nasty snarl following.  
“You too!” the teacher pointed at X, his face went pale and he stuttered, “m-m-me?”  
“Hey! He didn’t do anything! He was trying to stop us!”  
The teacher sighed and shook his head, “He got involved. Go.”  
Xavier and his curly brown hair followed.  
Vile got in front of them, shoving X as he walked past. X just sighed and gave Zero a look once he saw that glare and clenched fist.  
“He-’  
“I’m disappointed in you Zero. You know violence isn’t the answer, and besides that Vile was trying to provoke you. You just gave him what he wanted.”  
The sinking in Zero’s stomach overpowered the bits of rage that pricked up when he heard Vile chuckling. His no-good very bad day had sunk to a new low. X was disappointed in him.  
Out of all the things, waking up to yelling, have a mustard sandwich for lunch, wearing dirty clothes to school, having your hair be a mess, getting to school late, getting chalk dust all over your clothes, this was the worst.  
Disappointing X was the worst part.

That was worse than having to deal with Principal Sigma. The gym teacher is such an ass. He fucking sent X but not that asshole Penguin. His voice is fucking annoying.  
All this shit fucking blows.

Zero was relieved when X was let off the hook. It was very surprising considering sigma hates both him and X, for reasons who didn’t know and couldn’t know. Vile also got off the hook, while Zero had a month's worth of detentions. Of course. That wasn’t surprising.

What a horrible day. Thank god the day was almost over, he could spend his hour in detention, and then go home and get a few slices of pizza hut slices before Bass ate it all. It wouldn’t help how awful all of this is, but it could maybe compensate for the mustard sandwich.

He spent a lonely hour by himself in detention. Tapping his fingers, and thinking, thinking.  
About X mostly. He definitely, he thought, liked him.  
More than just a friend.  
It wasn’t as startling as a realization as it probably should have been. He had known this, for a while maybe. It had been on his mind for a while, and it should’ve been more obvious. Really, if he thought about it, he had probably known for a while. He was really fucking dumb to not realize that up until now. What a moron I am he thought.

But another thought he had, why would someone like X want someone like Zero? X had it all, a loving family, siblings that loved him with sweet kinda faces and looked up to him and called him “big brother.” The only thing Bass had called him was “shit head” or “Blondie” both of which turned into a fight and Zero having to pin him down into a chokehold. His face certainly isn't sweet. It was nasty, his soul and heart were twisted up by Wily who hated his adversary Rock and the Light family more than anything it seemed. It was their fault they lived in a dingy trailer while they lived in a nice mansion-worthy house. Zero thought it was because Wily is a stupid old man with -0 common sense.

He wouldn’t love someone who is related to the guy who keeps lunging at Rock wherever he has a chance. He wouldn’t want someone who had a mangy old mutt that bit anything or anyone that wasn’t bass. Damned mutt nearly ripped Zero’s hair off his scalp once. Their pets were sweet, friendly, and well trained The orange tabby they had, named Tempo. The cat never once lunged at the blue and yellow parakeet they had, named Beat, even when it was out of its cage. Of course, he didn’t know he lived like that. Zero would change the subject when it was brought up, but the point very much stood still.

Their way of life was better than that of the Wily family. That was just a fact. One set in stone.

He left detention 10 minutes early. The teacher that was supposed to watch him was fast asleep anyways, not like anybody would miss him.

It was spring, so the sun was still high in the air, blissful, the light was, after being locked away in a dark building with unnatural light for so long, it felt nice to see the light and the pink cherry blossoms in the wind. What wasn’t so nice though, was the heat. The sun seemed to shine directly on him, the black uniform didn’t take to kindly to that and his back started to sweat. Zero has just asked the gods for a drink when he spotted a nearby vending machine. Closing his eyes, he silently and pleaded for just enough to buy him a cold drink, didn’t matter what it was really. Just something cold and refreshing… He reached into the hole where the change was dispensed and…  
Felt a couple of coins. His eyes flew open in surprise, his hand opened to three 100-zenny coins and he thanked the gods, whichever one had decided to bless him. But then again, he deserved it after the day he had. His eyes hovered over the prices and landed on ramune. Marble soda. Ramune… that brought him back. A librarian, Dr. Cain was his name. He and X were always very close, Cain was almost like a second father. Whenever he couldn’t tell Light something, there he was chatting to Cain who would buy him and Zero marble soda. 

X… 

Putting the coins in, his heart suddenly felt heavy, and he had to pronounce his love. He had to say it out loud just once, just once, then… Then it would be all over he could leave it alone he just needed this one moment to say it. Nobody was around. He could say it now and nobody would ever ever ever notice.  
So he did. Crouched down, and carefully taking out the glass bottle so it didn’t shatter in his hands and set off a perfectly awful day.  
“I love X.”

He stood up and turned around only to see the persons whose name he just uttered. His emerald-green eyes were wide, his mouth is slightly open and he was looking at him with complete surprise.  
“...Zero…? What did you just say?”  
“...”

Zero could feel his hands shaking, his breath quivering and his legs trembling. Terror, sheer terror flooded his senses and before he knew it he was running away from X, who was yelling after him to come back.

...What an idiot I am. He thought. Why in the world did I do that? He wondered. It was the most idiotic thing I have ever done. Now, we can’t stay friends. How big of a fucking moron could I be?! God, god DAMMIT. WHY WAS HE EVEN THERE?!

He felt wet stinging his cheeks and only then did he realize he was crying. Still, he didn’t stop running, his calves ached, his breathing was heavy and he let out wheezes and gasps, he held onto his side in pain, his arm limply moved from side to side, he still kept on running. He still kept on going. He didn’t stop running until he reached the grey trailer with a metal fence and dried yellow grass in the yard, he didn’t stop until he threw the door open, he didn’t stop when Bass yelled to ask what the fuck he was doing, and he didn’t stop until he went into his room and cried into his pillow, on his yellowed mattress with a white sheet. He could hear Bass and Wily talking in the other room as he less-than-silently cried.

“What the hell? Is he crying? What a pussy.”  
“Leave him alone.” Wily snapped at him.  
“But boys who cry are pussies.”  
“You don’t kick a man when he’s down.”  
“Unless it’s Rock.”  
“Well, that's a given. Now shut up, I need to call pizza hut.”

Later Bass gave him 3 slices of cheese pizza on a paper plate. His face was just as sour as usual, and he left without a word, but Zero knew he had good intentions. Wily in the other room had only told him to give him two. Usually, he would’ve only given one, or hell, fought him about it. Definitely not give him three.  
Still, it left a sour taste as he usually scarfed the thing down, he was instead slowly chewing it while staring at the ceiling. It was now 8 o’clock, and zero had his hair down and was wearing a red shirt and basketball shorts from 3rd grade. They were short, but they still fit. The TV blared something about monster trucks in the other room. Occasionally Wily would tell him to turn it down, he would but just turn it back up 5 minutes later. Then there was a RAP RAP RAP on the door.

“Answer the door already!”  
“IM GOING TO! Sheesh!”

 

Zero couldn’t hear who it was or what they were talking about but he did hear,  
“ZERO! GET OVER HERE!”  
“WHY?!” he yelled back  
“SOME GUY NEEDS TO SEE YOU!”  
After a bit of grumbling and stuffing the last bit of pizza into his mouth, he got the motivation to get up.

Imagine his surprise when he saw it was X

“It’s your fuckin boyfr-”  
Zero pushed Bass outside and stepped outside into the cool night air. 

“Why are you here? How did you know where I live?”  
“I-I’ve always known… I just didn’t want to say anything… I thought you were embarrassed,....”  
“...”  
“...Zero, I-”  
“You didn’t hear anything.” he cut X off.  
“Zero wait-”  
“Please, please just forget what you heard. “ zero cringed at how he was begging, BEGGING him, “I just want to stay being friends, I-I don’t want- I won’t… I won’t bring it up again, just…”  
“Zero. Please, listen.”  
“...” He was listening.  
“I...I…” This was peculiar, this was new. X looked nervous. He couldn’t look him in the eyes, his feet were firmly placed together and his fingers were restlessly twitching. Zero couldn’t allow himself hope but he wondered…  
“I actually…”  
No way…  
“I like you too…”

Zero stared. He stared and stared and stared. He was considering getting his ears checked.  
“What?”  
“I-I like you.”  
“...What?”  
“I like you Zero! I really really like you!”  
“...Why?”  
“T-there’s a lot of reasons. “  
“But I-”  
As if reading his mind, X retorted back, “I don’t care where you live or how your family hates my dad and my brother. I like you. You’ve been my best friend for years and… well... I know you don’t like to show it but you really can be sweet, and kind….”  
He hugged him. He was hugging him. X had hugged him before, but it felt… different. Before he knew it, Zero was leaning into it and had his arms around him as well.  
He thought, maybe, the day wasn’t so bad after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope Zero isn't to OOC;;;


End file.
